MS43.4: Francis Nicholson Papers
Nicholson letter to Unknown Person, Summer 1703
have served for my bread & that I have got it not onely by the sweat of my
brow but of my whole body besides the Labours of my mind. but I hope by ye divine
assistance to make it appear both by records & liveing testemonies that what
the affedavit Sparks have sworne against me, as likewise wt: the memoriall Gentlemen
have signed is not true, to give it no worse an Epethete, & I think that I may justly
say that the memorial & affidevits are part false, part Scandelous, & part Ma-
licious: & what is true of them I hope God willing to be able to justefie, abateing
humane frailtys & infirmeties. I must own that I never did nor doe pretend to be
a Saint or to have the spirit of a martyr, but I hope in God that I shall prove
that I have been and am an honest man a most Loyall & dutyfull subject to the
Crown of England (& a heart Intirely English) & more particularly to her most
Sacred Maj:ty my dread Sovereign Queen Anne (whom I pray God may Long
reigne over us) for I can justly swear my duty to her Majtie is as well by natu-
rall Choice as by Law & I have made it my daily study and practice to discharge my
duty by promoteing her Majty: Interest and service in all respects what in me Lay
for I ever had an extraordinary great & dutifull respect & honr: for her Majtie as
likewise for his royall Highness prince George of Denmark: & I paid it to their
royall persons both when they lived in Cambdin house as likewise at Berkley house
as sev:ll of her Maj:ts servants Know; & that I am a true and faithfull son of my
holy mother the Church of England as by Law Established and according to my
bounden duty I have indeavoured by all Lawfull wayes & means to promote the
welfare thereof in all respects both by the power & authority I had as likewise by
the little Capacity & money I was master of but whatever I have been able to doe
in this respect or in dischargeing my duty to her Majtie I don't in the least brag or
boast of & if I have done any good therein to God be the Glory
The last time Mr: Blair was in England he got an ord:r for 400 pounds to be paid
him as arrears of his Comissarys Sallarys wch: in all hath amounted to about £1000—
for wch: I think he hath hardly done so many Shilling's worth of service either to the
Church or state, but he turned out two ministers who were Englishmen Viz. one Mr: Joseph
Holt, in wch: as I am informed he proceeded in that affair not according to Canons or
Law. ye: other was Mr: Peter Collier & that tryall as I am informed is one of the most arbitrary
uncanonical & illegal that, may be, ever was from the very first to the last of it. I have
a letter under his own hand dated May the 3d: 1693 wherein he writes this viz:—
"When you see my Lord Bishop of London at leasure you may give him an account
"of what minisrs go in this Fleet, & if you think fit to put him in mind of the new
"Comission he promised me wth: the word viccar Generall added to that of Comissary
"whereby I may have power to proceed to the suspencion of Mr: Lidford or any other scandelous
"minister wch: I cannot now do, as you will see by the 12— Canon this was the Bishop of
"Worchesters Expedient, And besides I doe not find that ever he qualifyed himselfe
as the 127 Canon directs by taking an oath, that title of Viccar-Generall
suites very well wth: his arbitrary & illegall practices for I think there was no—
such officer since Crumwell Earl of Essex in Henry the 8ths: time & the high Comission
Court was abolished by an act in the reign of Charles the 1st. Entituled A repeale of
the branch of a statute primo Eliza: concerning Comissionrs for causes Ecclesiastical
if he had such a power it is a very easie thing to judge wth what pride & arrogance
he would use it: suitable to his ambitions & factious humor & actions for may be—
haveing of late years read so much Concerning the Cardinall Primate of Poland
& Cardinal Portocarero in spain it may have brought to perfection his designs
of being Cheif Ruler or manager of a kingdome of state or at least to have the
supream magistrate thereof to be ruled guided or depend upon him or upon him
wth: his little faction he would insinuate as if I was not the same man as I was
formerly when he used to give me all the verball & written Encomiums possible I don't
find that I am altered in the main of my way of liveing or my actions
onely in respect to him and a few others: for wch I had severall good & substancial
reasons some of wch were ye strange ill Characters that he, Ben: Harrison &—
Fouace gave me of one another. & I have found that they have outdone these
very Characters. may be Mr: Blair either did not keep Copys of the letters he
wrote to me or he doth not remember them but I think that I have them all
as alsoe Copys of those I wrote to him but he and the others have forgot to
give me Credit for the money and other things they have had of me, especialley
Mr: Blair and I hope that I have done some good in my time but his trecherous
memory failed him in the Credit side I hear his own brother said that his me-
mory faild him about what he swore Concerning the scholars Carring out &c
and his own Countryman Dr: Bill whom he brought over wth: him, says he believes
that he is Hipochondriacal and fancys strange things about being in fear of
his life &c I think his Brother as well as the doctor have very good reason for what
they say for Mr: Blair in his Affidavits agst: me has not onely sworne through
doors but even brick walls. I think it is well for me that Mr: Blair was not my
School Mr: else he had now laid to my charge things that I did when I was
a school boy. In his funerall oration on his late Majtie King Wm. (wch solemnity
I think I may say I performed wth: as much greatness & respect as this Country
was Capeable of & I officiated my selfe in the sevll: parts & it cost me some
money; but all this I thought was a duty every way incumbt: upon me) he
reflected (to give it no worse an Epithete) upon their Majts: King Charles the
Second and especially on King James. upon wch one Mr: Alexr: Walker a Minister
now in England & one of his Associates, left the College hall & he told me it
was upon account of what Mr. president Blair sd: agst. King James. I spoke
to him about haveing an oration & he undertook it himselfe & I think it
lasted above an hour and as I was informed he was four or five days a make-
ing of it He did me the great Honr: of bringing me in among Crowned heads
but I suppose it was wth: this designe (for their never was a greater Concourse
of people at one time, may be, seen in Virga) to make them out of Love
wth: Crowned heads and their Govrs: especially being King Wm was dead. —
When I taxed him about it wch was not till two or three days afterwards
he writ that he would justefie it and would send a Copy thereof to the Arch
Bishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London I hoped he would doe soe but
that he would not add nor diminish wch he might doe, because he read it all-
thô he preaches wth:out Book & I think some times wth:out Charity &c I should
be very glad to find that he hath sent a true Copy of the oracon to his Grace of
Canterbury & my Lord of London so that it might be seen. He had the assurance
(to give it no worse name) to reflect upon what I had ordered to be put upon
the Capitol wch was done in Cutt bricks and first showed on the day that (according
to my Duty) I proclaimed her Majtie. At top there was cutt the sun moon
and the planet Jupiter and underneath thus Her Majesty Queen Anne
her Royall Capitol —
he said that in Chelsea College it was mentioned that it was begun in King
Charles the seconds time continued in King James's & finished in King Wms In
whose time there was nothing of the Capitol done but the foundacon he taxed
me wth: flattery that I did it to make my Court to Her Majtie as if I had
never done it before; but I think I put him in mind that he Knew to the
Contrary for when he went for England in 1691 he was to have paid my duty
to her Majtie & his royll: Highness, & her Majts: Chaplains & Collo: Sandys he had
an instruction from me to wait upon &c but he wrote me thus in a Letter
dated February the 27th: 1691/2: "The Cheif news here since the Virga Fleet sailed
"is the disgrace of my Lord Marlborough the reasons of it are not divulged but it is
"said he is suspected by the King to have made the peace wth: France his
"place of Lt. Genll. of the English & Scotch forces is bestowed upon Collo: Tal-
"mash, his troop of gaurds upon my Lord Colchester, his regimt: of Fusileers upon
"Lord George Hamilton one of Duke Hamiltons sons & his place of his
"bed Chamber is still void My Lady Malborough was likewise forbid ye: Court
"and the princes Anne was ordered by the Queen to dismiss her from her service
"wch the princess took soe ill that she has Left the Cockpit upon it & gone out
"to live at Sion house. But when he was in Engln:d: in 1697then according to any
one of my Instructions he told me he did pay my humble duty to her Majtie
and that she received him very favourably & asked him a great many things
concerning Virga: I have often heard him speak agst: (to give it no worse
an Epithete) the act of the 7th: & 8th: of King Wm Concerning ye: plantacon
trade wch in these parts of the world Comonly goes by the name of the
Scotch act, one Expression of his I very well remember that when such sort
of acts of trade &c were made there was no regaurd had to Equity but that
Interest and partiallity or words to that effect were Comonly the
Causes—